It Just Won't Work (On Hiatus)
by HeartQueenVivaldi
Summary: Victor Nikiforov has always been unstoppable. Being a five-time world champion doesn't come from luck, neither does coaching another soon-to-be world champion. Victor always made the seemingly impossible look easy, and that's what everyone always expected from him. No one ever imagined that Victor Nikiforov would ever break down, so when he did no one knew quite what to do.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey Everybody! It's been a while since I have posted anything, and I have been short on ideas. School hasn't been helping with that at all. This is a multiple chapter story and my first one about Yuri! On Ice, so I hope I was able to capture the characters well. And I'll give you a warning now that Victor might be a little ooc for this one in order to capture the general idea of the story itself. Besides that, let me know if something seems off. Enjoy and reviews are appreciated!**

It Just Won't Work

Chapter 1

" _There is no greater compliment as your choreographer and coach, but no greater affront as your fellow competitor."-Victor Nikiforov_

Victor Nikiforov is the man the many people believe is unstoppable, and that nothing could possibly faze him. Being a five time world champion doesn't come from luck, neither does coaching another soon-to-be world champion. Victor always made the seemingly impossible look easy, and that's what everyone always expected from him. No one ever imagined that Victor Nikiforov would ever break down, so when he did no one knew quite what to do.

Yuri Katsuki, who had strived for gold at the Grand Prix final, but walked out with silver, was training hard to start winning some gold medals with Victor at his side as his coach. They had moved to Russia so that Victor could train with Yakov again and make his own comeback in the Russian Nationals, and were slowly starting to get used to their new way of life. Their schedules had to be planned in such a way that their practice schedules didn't interfere with each other, which wasn't easy.

Schedules weren't the only problem at this point either. They also came across the problem that having your coach as a fellow competitor can cause some serious contentious moments. Yuri always had to wonder if Victor was giving him work that was going to help him win, because he knew that Victor wanted to win too, and they fought over it more than once. Victor always insisted that he would do everything in his power to help Yuri win, but Yuri couldn't always believe that.

Victor was truthful, though it was always hard for him to keep that mentality that his student's career was more important than his own at this point, and it started to wear on him quickly. He still wanted to win as a competitor, as they all do, but he also wanted to see Yuri wear the gold medal at the next competitions. He was grateful that they already had programs built for his soon-to-be-husband, because he wasn't sure if he could focus well enough at this point to create more while he was working on perfecting his own. At practice they continued to work on "Eros" and "Yuri on Ice".

A month after Yuri arrived in Russia, and they thought they were finally getting used to their schedules, and Victor was dealing with the stress well, it hit the older man that the Russian Nationals were only a week and a half away. Victor lost his composure for almost a full day at the realization that he wasn't ready for the upcoming competition. His free program wasn't completed, much less solidified, and started to panic. At practice that day he didn't land a single jump, and his confidence crept ever lower.

Yuri, naturally, noticed the change in his fiancé, and asked what was wrong: something he then discovered might have been a bad idea. "I'm not ready Yuri! I'm not used to not being ready, and I'm not used to this stress. My logic tells me what's most important, but my heart and brain won't believe it. I know I've had my chance to be on the podium, and I've been there many times. I know it's time to help someone else reach that spot, but my heart still wants to win. It still wants the title." Victor ranted to his current lover, and broke down in tears on the ice.

Yuri knelt down by the older man to speak to him softly. "Victor, I know this is hard, but I also know that you can overcome anything. You've always been stronger and more confident than I am."

"But my free program isn't even completed…"

Yuri thought for a moment, and then responded. "Why don't you just practice during our session? I can practice on my own today, and that way you can focus on finishing your program. Sound good?"

Victor looked up at his fiancé, then back down at the ice. He nodded slowly, got back up on his feet, and skated off the ice to take a quick drink and finish writing up his program. Yuri sighed watching the man he loved sit with a notepad, trying to be a competitor, as well as a good coach. He swept his hair out of his eyes, pulled a remote out of his pocket, and started the music for "Eros".

A week passed, but Victor was still not himself, and it was starting to concern the other man even more than it was before. The Russian had finished his program, but still wasn't landing his jumps the way he should, and Yakov ended up yelling at him even more as the days went by. Yuri watched Victor practice, and winced as Victor fell once again attempting a quadruple flip, his signature move. The competition was in three days, and the Russian still couldn't get through his program.

Another day passed, and practice was the same. With only two days left, Yuri had to do something. When Victor called him onto the ice, he made his way over to his coach slowly; thinking of what to say, and then it hit him. Victor was starting to explain to him what they would be doing, but Yuri interrupted. "You know I'm not competing for another two weeks, right?"

Victor looked up, surprised that Yuri had interrupted him. "What?"

"I'm not competing for another two weeks, not until the Japanese Nationals."

"Yeah, what of it?" Victor cocked his head to the side, confused at the statement.

"You perform in two days, and still haven't done your free skate all the way through." Yuri looked up to see Victor looking away from him. The raven scowled and pushed himself forward on the ice so that he could pull the Russian man's face down to look him in the eyes. "You need to stop focusing on me for a once and make yourself ready for this competition. We can focus on me and my performances once you are done this weekend. Until then, forget about my programs. I want to see you do well at the Russian Nationals, but you won't if you don't focus on yourself for a bit." Yuri watched as a new fire lit in the other man's eyes. "Now, I'm going to get off the ice and start your music, and I won't get back on this ice until you land every jump, or the competition is over, whichever comes first."

Victor nodded, and Yuri left the ice. The Russian took his place in the middle of the rink and Yuri pressed play on the speaker. The Japanese man watched Victor skate with a new vigor that he hadn't seen in a while, and was so focused on the performance he didn't realize someone was standing next to him.

Yuri Plisetsky spoke up right next to him, and scared Yuri so bad he almost jumped right out of his skates. When he realized it was only Yurio he took a deep breath and turned back to watch Victor. "Wow, Little Piggy. Did I scare you?" The teen chuckled.

"Well, you surprised me to say the least." Yurio rolled his eyes, but decided not to contest it, and just get right to the point.

"Why aren't you skating? I thought it was your practice time, not his."

Yuri answered; never taking his eyes off Victor as he finally landed a jump. "Victor has been struggling with his program this week, and I told him I won't get back on the ice until he lands all of his jumps perfectly."

"That's ballsy, especially for you Pork Cutlet Bowl." The teen snickered; impressed that the older boy had the guts to stand up to Victor like that.

"I just got sick of watching him constantly fail over and over again. He needs to put himself back together if he wants a chance at nationals."

Yurio nodded in agreement before making his rebuttal. "You realize I'm going to beat him, right? I'm going to take gold at nationals. He is more than welcome to take a spot next to me with the silver medal around his neck, but I want that spot in the middle."

"Hmmm, if you think Victor is going to lose with the program he is currently skating perfectly, then you are sorely mistaken." Yurio looked back to the ice to watch Victor land a perfect quad Flip, the jump he didn't land earlier that day. After that he stumbled on a quad Lutz, but didn't go down, which was still progress from earlier.

Yurio rolled his eyes. "Yeah, real perfect."

"Well, his base score is still higher than yours. He can stumble once or twice and still beat you."

"I'm betting the pressure will get to him, maybe not completely at this competition, but what happens when you have to compete against each other?" The teen let that sink in for a moment, and Yuri's face fell a little. "Yeah, good luck with that." He walked away, and Yuri's stomach flipped a few times as Victor took his final stance.

"I landed them all, so you better get your little ass out here and practice." Victor yelled at him across the ice, and Yuri cocked an eyebrow.

"When I said I want you to land them, I meant perfectly. You stumbled on your Lutz." Victor rolled his eyes, but shrugged and went to practice the Lutz he failed to land. Originally that wasn't Yuri's plan, but now he didn't feel like skating, and was preoccupied with what the Russian Yuri had said to him about competing against each other.

He was right. Victor might be able to pull off a gold medal at nationals, but things might change later on in the season, especially at Four Continents and Worlds where stress and tension are high as it is. If Victor was buckling already, and he wasn't even competing against Yuri, it was a bad sign.

 **Well, there it is. The next chapter will be coming soon, hopefully. Don't forget to review and let me know if you like it so far! Loves to you all, and happy reading! -HeartQueenVivaldi**


	2. Chapter 2

**What's up, my lovelies? Here's chapter 2 of my latest multi-chapter idea. I hope you enjoy it!**

Chapter 2

Before they knew it, The Russian nationals were upon them. Victor still hadn't skated perfectly, but at least he was landing the jumps more consistently. The day of the competition was far more than stressful with Yakov consistently yelling at Victor, claiming he was right about Victor taking a break. "You stupid man. You never should have taken that break. I told you multiple times that it was a bad idea, but you just had to do it anyways, didn't you? Stupid, just plain stupid."

Finally Victor got sick of listening to his coach nag him constantly, and walked away, knowing he had made the right choice, even if no one else believed it. "Where are you going, Victor?" The Russian turned back around to face his coach.

"To warm up, alone." He turned back around and left Yakov and Yurio staring at his back as he walked away. He found Yuri sitting by his bag where he left his skates, and sat down next to him.

"Is everything okay, Victor?" Yuri looked at his fiancé with worry evident in his eyes.

Victor looked over to see warm, brown eyes looking directly into his own cool blue ones. "Yakov won't stop nagging me, telling me I never should have left to be a coach." He paused for a minute and looked back down at the ground in front of him, leaning his elbows on his knees and putting his chin in his hands. "I made the right choice, right? I mean, I'm happier than I've ever been after becoming your coach and fiancé. Isn't that reason enough for me to have done what I did? I've had my chance…" he let his sentence trail and drifted off into wordless thought.

Yuri watched him quietly for a minute. Victor's eyes were distant, and he knew that the other man was thinking back on all of their time together, from the moment he showed up in Hasetsu up until now. They had laughed, cried, and everything in between in their time together. Recently they had cried more than anything with all of the stress, but all in all, they had a great relationship. If Victor hadn't taken a break when he did they never would have come together the way they did, if ever.

"I think it was the right choice. There isn't really any arguing that. You might not be exactly what you used to be, but isn't that the point?" Victor looked back at him from the corner of his eye, raising his eyebrows. "You shouldn't be able to be the same person after making a change like that. I think you have changed, but it's good. You've learned to love something other than skating, unless you don't love me?"

The Russian sat up again and lightly grabbed Yuri by the chin, making the younger man look him in the eyes. "Of course I love you, Yuri. How could I not after all we've been through?"

There it was. "Exactly. You're not the same person, because you're in love. Love has changed both of us." That's when Victor truly understood just how good his decision had been.

"I love you, Yuri. Thank you." He leaned in and pecked his lover lightly on the lips before standing back up to start warming up.

Within minutes he was called to the edge of the rink where he shed his jacket, and mentally prepared himself for his first competition since worlds the year before. Just before taking the ice, he turned to Yuri and clasped the hand of his future husband and the best thing that ever happened to him, displaying their matching rings for the entire world to see. He leaned in, putting their foreheads close together. "No matter what happens out there, you are the most important thing to me." Yuri smiled back, and Victor took to the ice, basically ignoring Yakov's ranting.

Victor ended up skating a perfect short program, beating his personal best, though still not enough to break the world record set by Yurio in the Grand Prix Final. Yurio skated soon after, and ended up in second behind Victor. They went home that night with Yurio pissed off that Victor had done so well under the pressure, and Victor beaming at his new personal best. Yuri just hoped that he could keep the good attitude until after the free skate the next day.

The next day, as Victor took the ice his stomach flipped. He still hadn't skated this program perfectly, and was suddenly very nervous. He shook his head, pushing the feeling away, and lost himself in the program, not thinking about what he was doing, only about who he wanted to do it for. Images of Yuri came to mind. He thought about the day Yuri won the Hot Springs on Ice, and how happy he had been, their journey through the grand prix, Yuri giving him the beautiful ring he now wore every day, and how happy it had made him to look down and be reminded of his fiancé every time he looked at his own hands. Love had changed him. He knew he wasn't the same any more, and would never go back. Even if he could, he knew he wouldn't. He had found love, something he had neglected for so many years. He had found it, and wouldn't let it go. He wouldn't let Yuri go. Yuri skated for Victor, so he wanted to skate for Yuri.

He had lost himself, and when the program finished, he couldn't even remember doing it. He was breathing hard, and everything seemed so quiet. He knew the audience was cheering, but he couldn't hear them. He could only see, and what he saw from his final stance was the man that changed him. Tears ran down both faces as they held each other's gaze for a moment before everything came to him. He could suddenly hear the cheering, and had to look away to take a bow, not knowing how he really did.

When he left the ice, Yuri embraced him, and Yakov was beaming, so he must have done okay. The three made their way to the kiss and cry, and Victor beheld his score. At seeing it he realized he had skated perfectly again. He beamed as Yurio took the ice angrily, and ended up taking silver overall. Victor won the gold.

After the nationals, Victor went back to focusing on Yuri's programs, and helping him modify them how he saw fit. He peaked at the grand prix final, so Victor wanted him to relax his programs a little so that he could take them even higher for worlds. And that's just what they did. Before they knew it they were back in Japan. They were at the large rink in Tokyo, and 5 skaters would be performing, Kenjiro Minami included. Yuri wasn't too worried about this competition. It was considered small compared to the grand prix events.

He performed smoothly and easily, not letting pressure get to him like it used to. Minami watched his every move with wide eyes, and a big smile. He took gold with ease, even with his tuned-down programs, and Minami placed just below him at silver level.

As Yuri and Victor flew back to Russia Yuri looked to his lover who was sleeping on his shoulder. He couldn't help but remember what Yurio had said a few weeks earlier: " _What happens when you have to compete against each other?"_ The easy part was over and it was only getting harder with every passing day as the time ticked on, bringing them closer to the world championship.

 **Just like Yuri thinks, this was the easy part. These first two chapters were pretty short, but the next ones could potentially be a lot longer, so hold onto your seats! Until next time, happy reading! -HeartQueenVivaldi**


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